COPS CHANGES
by Yygriega
Summary: After being gone for half a year Karen shows up on Harry's doorstep cut hip to hip and passes out as soon as he lets her in. The bomb she drops when she awakens is just the first thing that changes everything in Harry's life.


COPS

CHANGES

Chapter One

There was a soft knock then a loud thud on my door. I was hesitant to answer, but something drew me to it. When I opened it, a 5 foot nothing, 90-pound blond toppled into my arms. I hadn't seen my sister for months. She vanished without a trace, all bent out of shape about something. I put her on my couch and took note of a few startling changes. She was clutching her stomach even unconscious, she was thinner from lack of fat and muscle so she hadn't worked out nor gained weight since she vanished, and she hadn't cut or dyed her hair for at least that long. I also couldn't help but note her breasts were bigger.

I peeled her hand from her stomach and a gush of fluid moved the shirt. I lifted the shirt to see a big smile cut low on her belly hipbone to hipbone. The bones jutted sharply against her skin. The cut was puckered and crusted over in places but a couple of holes oozed water and puss. I called Butters, an ME that had come in handy a few times, immediately and told him about Karen. He was there in minutes and ushered me out of the living room so he could work.

"I had to reopen the incision and clean out the wound. There was massive infection like whoever cut her open didn't care if they closed her up right. She needs to be milked soon too, or else there will be a clot and that could lead to infection too." He explained. It took me a moment but when the concept sank in I sputtered in surprise.

"I'm sorry, milked?"

"Yeah I'm not a boob doctor, I don't know the technical term but yes, milked." Butters said. "It would be my dream job but I don't want Karen to hit me. Anyway, I put her back together, left in draining tubes; those will make a big gross mess so keep the area clean. She needs tons of water and antibiotics." Butters looked around. "Where's the baby?" Butters rambled. I made an exaggerated 'T' with my hands.

"Time out… MILKED?" I asked, still dumbfounded by that concept.

"Yeah, she had a c section… the position of the cut, the swelling of the breasts..."

"She had a baby?" I asked still slow on the uptake. I figured she was cut not surgically for a purpose but to kill her. I sat on the chair by the couch. "Well I'll be a Murphy's uncle." I said.

"I kind of ran out on work. I'll come by later." He cleaned up and left me next to Karen.

Wow, we had been through a lot these few years. I stopped a war between summer and winter by killing the summer lady and winter knight, became the winter knight by consequence, then I stopped the knights of the blackened denarius from stealing the shroud of Turin, picked up a fallen angel of my own, and had a duel with Duke Ortega that ended undesirably for him. I got a foo dog, broke a curse for a porn director and destroyed Mavra's scourge, then found out Thomas the white court vampire was my biological half brother. My sister started dating an assassin, and I had to save Butters the mortician from a bunch of necromancers on a world domination scavenger hunt.

After that, I picked up a new apprentice, helped Elaine save some witches from a white court vampire feud, loosing my fallen angel in the process, and helped my queen save John Marcone from the Denarians. I started dating Luccio, which was nice… until I found out she was brainwashed into it, which seems to be my most effective pick-up strategy. Morgan was framed for the murder of a member of the high council and came to me for help. I know I couldn't believe it either. After that I had a few normal cases, reminded me of the good old times when I worked with my sister without things trying to kill me. It was short lived. Karen got depressed, then vanished.

When Karen came to I was ready with water, painkillers, and antibiotics. Butters weren't kidding about the mess. I left a towel across her wound to sop it all up. When she tried to sit up I saw it soak through. I changed out the towel and used a wet one to clean up the area before covering her with the new towel and tucking it under her.

"So you had a baby." I said conversationally.

"A girl. Margaret Marry Murphy." Karen rasped in a sort of vacant tone. She sipped some water, passed it back to me then closed her eyes from the pain.

"When?"

"This morning." Her eyes welled with tears.

"Hells bells, you should be in a hospital."

"They took her!" She began to cry weakly. "The reds pretended to be doctors and just took her away." She cried a bit longer, trying to speak but not making much sound but wails. "I never got to hold my baby… I never got to…" she cried inaudibly.

"Where was the dad in all this?" I asked trying not to lose control on my anger. I could hear in the rough tone of my voice I probably vamped out, hell I might have already from the smell of blood… maybe that was why Butters didn't want me in the room while he was opening Karen up. "Why are you here alone?"

"Harry…" Karen tried to calm her breathing. It looked like it hurt her to breath. She massaged her chest then pushed on her sternum and took a deep breath until it made a low pop and held it then let it go slowly breathing. "God that feels better." She whispered. Butters had cut off her shirt and she wasn't wearing a bra so I put one of my shirts on her to maintain decency. When she tenderly squeezed her swollen breasts the light gray cotton undershirt soaked through in the area of her nipples immediately. She tried to sit up but I stopped her.

"Don't make me lick you… wait that might help, want me to?" I asked.

"That's what got me in this mess in the first place." She joked weakly. Then I understood. Roughly 9 months earlier, before she vanished, Karen had hired me to consult on a rash of suicide pacts. They were all connected by a carnival run by red court vampires. There was a love spell cast on all the victims, and they were driven so insane with their love that they took their own lives together. We went to the carnival, couldn't detect the spell, but got hit with it all the same. In the heat of the love spell we christened the back seat of the Blue Beetle then at a very inappropriate time realized we might be under a spell. My poor daughter had a pretty sad conception story. Oh we defeated the evil sorceress burned the enchanted love belt, and broke the spell, but all the same, sad. So sad.

"Oh…" was all I could manage to say. My stomach fluttered and I had a little memory of how good it felt to love so deeply and confidently. I remembered how it felt physically to be entwined with Karen, moving as one in the confines of the little car. Looking up at her ecstatic blushing face as she moved atop me. I rubbed the back of my neck then clapped my cheeks with my hands. "Lets start with where have you been?"

"Hawaii, in Thomas's condo."

"So my real brother hid my adopted sister away in the condo he got from the vampires that changed me?" I laughed.

"In retrospect, they most likely had a monitor on the condo. That's how they knew I was pregnant. I remained in touch with Thomas. He insisted I come back and have the baby here. He wanted me to tell you but I was so scared."

"Of what? You've known me all my life, why would you be scared?"

"I'm your sister…"

"Not biologically. My mom's a warlock and my dads a stage magician." I grabbed her hand and held it to my cheek. "Honestly I had a schoolboy crush on you for like as long as I've been into girls." She snorted then made a pained sound. "I liked us being the Murphy twins but this… this could be good too. Either way we're a team, inseparable." She laughed a cautious breathy laugh.

I drove to burger king and got her something to eat and stopped by the drug store for multivitamins more pain killers and antibiotics. When I got back Butters was waiting to be let in. when we came in we found Mouse whimpering, trying to get Karen to pet him. She weakly moved her fingers on his muzzle but couldn't muster much in the way of a good scratch. He licked her fingers then got out of the way for Butters to check up on her. We made her eat, take vitamins, drink water then it was question time.

"So Karen, you realize you're pregnant, quit CPD, move to Hawaii, get convinced to come home to have the baby, then what?" I asked.

"I was at the hospital around 3 in the morning because my water broke and they took me to maternity and pumped me full of drugs, I remembered waking up during the operation and seeing one of the surgeon's eyes were black. The IV had their spit in it. I know what it feels like." she flicked her eyes from Butters to me then her lap, fighting the tears. "I heard her cry and then it was black. When I woke up I was cut open, barely put back together, nobody knew my baby or me and I just had this awful feeling. I got dressed and grabbed a cab straight here."

"That's so scary that they can just do something like that and nobody notices." Butters said.

"We will find our baby. They wanted her alive, maybe they need her alive. There's still a chance to fix this. Have faith." I said smiling compassionately. I hurt inside. I had a child now but before I could see her face, know her name; she was already taken from me.

I made some calls to Thomas, Ebenezer McCoy, and Radar. I let them all know what was going on, and ask if they had anything that might be related. Thomas gave me some Intel about an office near my house that was owned by a company that was owned by the red court, and suggested we visit them tonight to see if there was anything there to help.

Chapter Two

I parked away from the building but where I could keep an eye on it. I was never too good at illusions, but my apprentice Molly was. She made herself look like my brother then made us invisible while fake us walked into the building. I felt a shiver down my spine. Seconds later I saw bats walking along the sides of the buildings like they often did along the ceilings of their caves but these weren't murders of tiny bats, these were 6 adult human sized bats; red court vampires. After watching two land on the roof, and the other 4 enter the building through conspicuously conveniently opened windows, we went on in.

I moved up the stairs careful not to make a sound and listened. About the ninth floor I heard rustling about on the floor. There was hissing and gurgling words I vaguely recognized as Spanish but no Spanish or Latin I'd ever heard. I couldn't make out everything said but I got the idea. They were trying to stop the half blood from getting something. I snuck up to about 10 feet from a pair of them and called my anger into frigid cold front that froze them solid and continued to freeze them until they shattered before they could do more than chatter their teeth in response. I rounded the corner and saw the shadow at the far end of the hall glisten in the moonlight and shot soul fire now in a lance of white heat. It ripped the ninja wannabe vamp in half.

Now, it kind of sounds like I did all this without them moving against me, but that wasn't true, I was just too fast for them. One sprang out an office at me, and I lashed a ring of fire out of me like Havoc from the X-Men, then aimed at his head, saw his blood reserves spilled from the flaming ring gouging his belly open, and decided to let him suffer a second. He screamed, and when I figured the two remaining vamps heard him plenty enough, I engulfed the rest of him in hellfire. I spotted movement on the ceiling and saw the light of the moon cast through open windows into the offices and out into the hall through windowed doors as it danced along the goggling black eyes. It scampered toward the open window, so I called wind and made a casual come here motion, and the wind delivered the beast to my out-stretched hand. I gripped the flap of it's wing, and my other arm gripped it's neck then I made my hand into an ugly black claw and gouged open it's belly, and dropped her cold limp body.

I turned my black eyes to the window through which I heard a screech outside and ran to it. The fires I had set were fanned by my winds so they set off alarms and sprinklers. CPD and fire trucks would be there in 3 or 4 minutes. "Damn it Harry, this place is wired." The real Thomas, who had come earlier to dig for information chastised me.

"Sorry, what was I supposed to do?" I led the retreat down the stairs out a hall into the alley and almost a block away, then sure enough, the building went boom. We jumped offering the least resistance so our innards weren't liquefied, but at that distance they wouldn't anyway, then rolled like action heroes, though mine ended comically with me overturning a plastic trash can full of assorted smelly food stuffs. I got up and brushed myself off then watched

"Find anything?" I snarled. Thomas looked at me with a tired expression then held up an external hard drive. We rode in his car back to the apartment where Butters was still watching over Karen.

"So I did manage to find out who ordered Maggie's kidnapping." Thomas explained "Duchess Arianna."

"Now we just need Intel on duchess Arianna's location and intent." I said.

"She's going to Edinburgh for a peace talk with the white council. It was arranged through the white court." Thomas said.

"We think she's up to something?" Molly replied.

"Duh, she's up to something. You can bet on that, but that's where she is and what she says she's doing. Thomas, could you try and get more off the drive?"

"Oh yeah." He said packing things up. "There has been lots of reds activity setting something up in Central America too. Might be relevant."

"Speaking of relevance, why take Karen's baby? She has nothing to do with the war." Butters asked.

"Because she's my baby too. Payback for killing her daughter and husband."

"I can respect that, I'm feeling particularly murderous myself." Karen said painfully. I chuckled. Molly and Butters looked at me funny. Thomas left in a hurry. He already knew about Maggie before me.

"Oh, right, sorry, 9 months ago Karen and I were hit with a love spell and made a baby, the end." I said to answer the odd looks. That solved it. Butters knew we weren't real siblings from the start. Duh, he's a doctor. Molly didn't know but didn't push it. Molly went back home and I nursed Karen. The sun was coming back up by the time Thomas returned. "What'd you find?" I asked Thomas as he spread out documents and pictures on the coffee table.

"Inventory reports, so far. Got the location of a warehouse, but… nothing really malevolent." I looked over Thomas's shoulder.

"Nothing malevolent my ass, these are ritual items…" I explained as I flipped through the photos and descriptions of each piece. "Knives and masks are black magic ritual give-ins man, undeniable. I'll have to touch the real thing to feel out what the ritual will accomplish, and what kind of blood needs to be sacrificed. I'd want to bring my lab assistant along too; he'd do better than me at it. Is that all this is?"

"So far, yeah."

"I'll have the cops over wondering why my car was at the scene when a building blew up, and how I survived." Crap the next day was the peace talks with Arianna. I hoped I had enough time to do that and get back for the cops.

I had slept but sure as hell didn't feel like I had. I dressed and shambled to the kitchen where Molly was already fixing breakfast. "Morning Boss."

"Don't feed the dog, people food, it's bad for him and teaches him bad manners." I warned Molly as Mouse patiently waited just outside the kitchen. Mouse gave me a reproachful look then smiled back at Molly. She tisked at me then served up a veggie heavy omelet with bacon that was only lightly charred this time, and a glass of orange juice.

"How's a man to survive without coffee?" I eyed the glass.

"It's bad for you." Molly told me. I rolled my eyes and looked at Karen's cute sleeping face. She looked so young and vulnerable like that. I had gone ahead and licked her to make sure she slept well. Vampirism perks number 1.

"I'll show you what's bad for you." I grumbled stuffing my omelet in my face in one piece. I had to bite it off, and then crammed a strip of bacon in my cheeks. After chewing a good long while I swallowed some and let Molly laugh at me grumpy eating. After breakfast I cleaned Karen up, changed her towel and we headed to Edinburgh. That was fun.

I held my tong while Arianna pretended to want peace. After that Luccio took me to the Worry Room, sort of like the secret bar for the elder council. I explained Arianna was shipping ritual pieces somewhere. Ritual pieces specific to a big time black magic spell. At some time in the discussion the merlin showed and charged me with finding more information. Like I wasn't going to any way.

We were back before lunchtime, and seconds after throwing our robes onto the coat rack there was a knock at the door. I unbolted the 4 dead bolts, opened the door, and saw it was Thomas. "We know the ritual is going down in Chichen Itza, everything is supposed to be in place 9 hours from now. Out of nearly a petabyte of information only about 300 files were about the ritual items. It was like a shopping list that's it." Thomas passed me a manila envelope from his computer bag and I flipped through it. I put it down and went to my lab then brought Bob the skull.

"Hey bonehead, can you make any sense of this shopping list?"

"Ha, ha Bone head, like you haven't called me that too many times." Bob answered.

"Shut up and tell me bout the ritual, Bob."

"Hard to do both."

"Do one till, you can do the other."

"Yeah, yeah. Hmmm looks like a bloodline curse."

"Like the loup-garou? Or what LeFay did to Raith?"

"No more violent than that. Kill the sacrifice and everyone sharing blood with him dies."

"Were all related biblically speaking."

"Okay, listen I'll explain it nice and dumb for you."

"Thanks."

"You do this ritual, build up power using a lot of sacrifices, and then load the sacrifice that counts at the appropriate time. Say you stick Karen in it." I scowled at the skull "When she is killed, all her _real_ siblings will drop dead, her mother and father and uncles will drop dead, any grandparents will drop dead, so on up the chain. Her cousins will all be fine, and the rest of the 200 strong will soldier on. Though there is also the ability to make it about a different kind of relation. Say instead of Karen you throw a brand new wizard on the slab, then any wizard who had come into their power before that moment would drop dead until they're all gone." Bobs explanation gave me chills.

"So maybe that's what this is about."

"You should probably find the items and destroy them so they loose the chance to do the ritual at all." Bob said matter of factly.

"Harry, you had a call while you were out." Karen interjected. "Rudolf got the FBI involved so… the FBI are on their way here now to accuse you of blowing up a building." Karen started saying.

"You say this NOW?" I interrupted.

"Well, they would have a warrant to search you home… and lab." She continued pointedly.

"Crap… Okay, Grasshopper, I want you to talk to Father Forthill, see if he knows anything about Chichen Itza lately."

"Sure thing boss."

"Oh, but put up a veil." She nodded. We went outside, I let Mouse out to pee, then made an illusion of a car over Molly's invisible girl act. She hid the real car and drove away. I checked the mail then went inside and who cares if the car vanished, Molly was gone and invisible, no risk of being found. I hurried to collect anything illegal or questionable.

"Shit, Bob you need to take down the wards."

"What? Why? They'll be down for 24 hours if I do that!"

"No choice, if the Feds are snooping around, the wards might go off, then I'd be charged with smearing Feds on my walls."

"Valid point." Bob agreed and dropped the shields.

I rushed into the Lab and started loading up, a lead box full of depleted uranium dust, some body parts of extinct, endangered, or cryptozoological animals, weapons… Bob. Then I opened a rift into the Nevernever and stepped in… when I came back out I climbed up the latter, sans bag of goodies just in time for a knock on the door. I opened it to see our childhood friend Tilly and pain in our ass Rudolf with a bunch of uniform cops. I let them in and Karen sat up painfully to greet them.

Rudolf slammed his hands on the coffee table and shouted, "Why did you blow up the building, Murphy?" I started laughing. Tilly looked unamused. Karen looked in pain.

"Rudolf, why don't you go have a smoke?" Till suggested pointedly as the other officers snooped around.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" I couldn't breathe. Ahhhhh!" I tried not to laugh too hard.

"You channeling Bud White there Rudolf?" Karen asked trying to look amused through the pain. She was sheet white and without her previously impressive abs, siting upright must have been nigh impossible.

"You want to mess with me, bitch?" Rudolf shouted over my laughing.

"Stop it, I can't take any more!" I laughed harder.

"Rudolf, out." Till ordered.

"You can't boss me around, I'm a duly appointed representative of CPD and a member of this task force. We should arrest this ass hole, and his crooked bitch sister!" Rudolf pointed at us as I continued to laugh though we were not amused.

"You can leave through the door or through the window, your choice, but I won't have you here impeding this disposition!"

"I'd like to see you try it." Rudolf got in Tilly's face. Till sighed, the same kind of sigh I see Karen do when she's controlling her temper.

"Get him out of here." Till said in a low growl. Two uniform cops ushered Rudolf out the door. Till fixed his suit then sat down again "Did you do it?"

"No."

"Okay then."

"Just like that?"

"I got a knack for telling when someone is lying to me. You aren't lying. So tell me what happened."

"Knack for lie detecting or not, you won't believe me."

"Try me."

"A few years back this business bought that building."

"Nuevo Verita."

"God bless you. Ever heard of duchess Arianna, and her husband Paolo Ortega? Well, I kind of hurt their feelings, and Arianna is someone high on Nuevo Verita's food chain, so they hid explosives in the building to blow me up real good."

"Well, golly Mister Murphy, you seem like such a sweet boy. How ever did you upset South American royalty?"

"Nothing illegal. I almost beat Ortega in a duel, he cheated, someone else cheated back." I said, shrugging. Tilly looked hard at me then after a while flicked his eyes to Karen then looked down blinking.

"And why does CPD seem so hell bent on blaming you for an attempt on your own life?" Tilly asked.

"Politics?" I started. "Karen and I have bunched the panties of a lot of dirty money in our day. Money leans on politicians, politicians lean on cops." Tilly cocked an eyebrow. Then shook his head.

"Fucking Chicago, man." He relaxed a little then scratched his head. "Rudolf is crooked. He lied his ass off to get our attention on you, and it's clear that there's some personal resentment in there."

"I made him look like a chump a time or two. Karen emasculated him more than that."

"I got a big old file on you at the FBI Harry. Ever since the Lobo Murders."

"Jeez, 4 FBI agents turn vigilante, but I get the rap?"

"Seriously Harry, the Police already believe you're involved, they just need to find the proof. If they can, they want to drag Karen under with you. You're in a lot of trouble."

"Understatement of the day, there Slim." I blew out an aggravated breath and stood to walk him out.

"So what part of all that, didn't you think I'd believe?" Slim turned to me in the doorway and offered me his hand.

"Vampires." I answered shaking his hand. He accepted the answer then left. When I returned a woman with my cat occupied my armchair. She stood and offered me her hand.

"Godmother, it's been such a long time." I bowed over her hand.

"Indeed it has." She smiled at me.

"It isn't that I don't like you here, but the last time I saw you, there were two people talking out of one mouth, you know?"

"You saw me being healed of my affliction." She put a hand on her chest and bowed her head as if mourning. Karen lay back down.

"Mab was healing you? It looked like torture."

"A madness had bested me, treacherous gifts robbed me of my senses. But my love for Mab and willingness to be healed allowed my queen to cure the sickness. I dare not think on it any longer."

"So why are you here?"

"As I've always been: to ensure the spiritual well being of my Godson."

"Sure… hey you made the gardens on the other side didn't you?" she bowed.

"I will gladly return your treasures to you when asked, and should you parish I will bestow them unto one of your choosing."

"Sure you will." I said as I offered her a seat. "Wait, did my mother ever leave anything with you? Had she ever asked you to give me anything when I was ready or some cryptic crap?" Lea smiled, held out her fist then opened it to reveal a red ruby, the perfect size to fix into my pentacle. I picked it up and heard my mother narrating passages through the Nevernever. "It's a map?" I fixed it into my Pentacle amulet. At some point after becoming the winter knight I was wrestling with a black court vampire and shoved Karen's cross in his face. Only after the fact did I realize I was touching a cross without the burning sensation. It was nice to wear my pentacle again.

"Well, well, well." Lea apparently didn't know what it was. She bowed.

After eating I tested out my new toy, then returned to find Molly and Thomas back.

"Where were you?" I asked Thomas.

"Tailed our tails. 3 mortal private detectives, hired by 3 different women, all too beautiful to be real… all Arianna, I'm sure. The really old ones can change their flesh masks. Can go out in the sun too."

"That's news to me. I don't think the council even knows about that."

"Big surprise, the council of pompous think-they-know-it-alls doesn't know something." Karen grumbled. I could kiss her.

"Maybe we can go to New Mexico to sabotage the ritual items." Molly suggested.

"I just came from there. Blew it all up." I answered.

Chapter Three

Ramirez and McCoy called me to explain that the senior council had gone missing. There were a lot of white council members just vanishing, and remaining senior council member, Christos was all the way up Arianna's ass; metaphorically speaking I'm sure, arresting council member left and right for speaking against her. I explained what had been going on with my side of things

"I suggest you ask your Valkyrie friend for help" Godmother said from her chair.

"Shoot, that'll work." McCoy laughed. I made a call to Marcone who arranged things with Sigrún who damn near immediately brought me to Oslo to meet her daddy, Donar Vadderung, CEO of Monoc Securities. He explained to me how exactly the curse worked, and then informed me that beings once worshiped as gods were at the center of it all. He didn't give me the Vikings or the Valkyries but he gave me what Odin's best known for. Knowledge. He gave me the vital information necessary to rescue my daughter, stop the curse, and cripple the red court, perhaps ending this war.

I returned to my apartment knowing one thing. I needed help. And lots of it. A faithful man would think what happened next was God's work. Who knows? My apartment was lit on fire. Molotov cocktails. I rushed to get Karen out safely then went back for my elderly neighbors. I couldn't get up to the top floor for the last of the neighbors but suddenly a knight of the cross arrived with a latter, got my neighbors the Willoughby's and helped me bring Karen with us to St. Mary of the Angels. I carried Karen into the church and put her down on a cot then turned to see everyone staring. Butters went right to Karen, checking her vitals and muttering as he went. I put a hand on the little guy's shoulder and exchanged a weary smile.

I wanted to cry, to climb into the bed with her and make her better. I tried to use my healing spell, but I don't claim to be too good at it. After feeling like I was locking my knees I gave it a rest. I should save the rest of my energy for the op. yeah; Karen would call it an Op. with everyone at the church I explained what we had so far. It wasn't much without Father Forthill's information about Chichen itza. Thomas, Molly, two knights of the cross, Tilly and Meryl, a big former Troll girl I befriended when I became the Winter Knight, were all the allies I could gather. It would have to do. We were about to storm Chichen itza and save my Baby girl. My godmother was outside the church beckoning me so I came out to chat.

"Bring me, your woman, child."

"What? No, she's hurt."

"Not for long." She replied smugly.

"What's it going to cost me?"

"Godchild, when you became our knight you dutifully sacrificed many things for winter. It would be unbalanced for us not to repay the favor." She answered. I brought her Karen and she healed the wound as if Karen was never cut open in the first place. She then manipulated her clothes into silver armor that left the mid section and cleavage revealed. Karen's hair was practically bleached silver blond and her ears seemed to taper into delicate points. She stirred in my arms and let me set her down before examining her stomach.

"Godmother, that's totally hot but it doesn't really protect anything." I said eyeing the bikini mail armor. Lea took out a blade and slashed at Karen's exposed mid drift. Sparks flew and the sword broke. She shot Karen point blank in the face, the bullet fell and no damage was dealt. "Nice!" Karen and I said in unison.

I felt crawling on my skin and yelped to find myself in a silky fencing outfit. I did not approve. Godmother indulged herself in a little fashion show sorting through many different ideas until she settled on a suit of Spanish armor but added an asymmetrical shoulder piece that covered my heart with a batwing sort of design then came off the shoulder with a similar pattern so it looked like armor with a metal batwing wrapped around one shoulder.

I didn't like the helmet either so I was given a hood and mouth cover with forked cape coming off the back of the armor from under the metal bat wing. There were similar bat wings on the knees, reminding me of a painting I saw in McCoy's castle of King Arthur's son Mordred. The getup was silver but she changed it to black with some sort of chromatophoric scrolling snowflake pattern on my chest piece. Basically now I was dark and sinister looking with a color shifting snowflake broach on my chest. She loved it.

"Thank you, but how long will this last?"

"Until noon naturally." She answered.

I asked my godmother for the bag I ditched and she provided it from her trunk then Karen and I returned inside. Everyone stared and I think my eyes were big and black, tattoos black and bold, and fangs protruding from my teeth. I couldn't help it I was pumped. It was odd that I was inside a church without burning but I didn't question a good thing. Thomas called us all around the Intel Father Forthill provided to go over the semblance of a plan. I filled in the blanks with where the way would let us out and how my godmother would surely lend a hand in getting us there faster.

Once armed and briefed, we all piled back into the limo and zipped to the first way. It was an arduous journey, and thanks to the people who came prepared we made it through, and came to Chichen Itza as hounds. I spotted some reds in the tree line and decided to take advantage of our better forms and hunt them down. Once back we were all changed back and now had our backs covered if we kept them to the jungle. We fanned out keeping to the shadows. I used a gravity spell to squash a large platoon at once, and then opened the ground beneath another, closing it on them. Molly made an amazing illusion of another rift, and most importantly corralled them together so one torrent of hellfire was able to consume them all.

But then a chorus of screeches echoed through the pyramids and more flooded from them. The screeches stopped when a conch horn howled over them, and a mortal woman in ceremonial garb came to us with two half vampires beside her. While the majority of my allies were able to hide and be veiled by Molly, Karen and I met with the mortal and she brought us to a courtyard where we were surrounded on all sides with enemies. Duchess Arianna stood in the courtyard, feral and beautiful, and waiting to duel me. We chose magic, as our weapons, but she forgot I was more powerful now with queen Mab's gifts.

I reached into the under ground water wells and broke the earth to capture her in a fountain that swiftly turned to ice not unlike Lea's prison. I froze her through then shattered her. A stampede turned to flee. I didn't care about them. I wanted the King. I wanted my little girl back. I could hear him spouting commands and then he began chanting. I reached the top quickly enough but was deterred by some powerful guys in masks. The lords of outer night. Lea threw an emerald into the sky and green lightning struck where it landed. She turned and helped me defeat one. Lightning struck another from behind and I watched Odin in the gray cloak of the gray council leading a dozen more cloaked wizards including my grandfather, and a murder of crow people out of a green portal where the emerald had landed.

I turned my attention to the other masked bastards. They set their wills on me, so I woke up Bob and put a stop to their effect on me. The sky erupted with a fire and lightning show, a sinkhole formed on the ground. Making the vamps scatter from the stairs up the pyramid. It was an illusion, and Molly, Michael and Thomas with Sanya, and Tilly formed up and charged up the pyramid. Mouse was guarding the rear. Molly was spinning her two wands sweating and muttering. I climbed the stairs and threw hellfire into the lords of outer night. No surprise that it didn't work. The others caught up to us as we struggled.

I could see Maggie, hear her cry. I was so full of rage. I wanted to save her. So I called Hellfire and Soul fire together, and used my will to push the herd. Then I loosed a lance of stone melting heat through one of the lords of outer night and into the back of the red king's head. He emerged from his flesh mask and grew much bigger than me. Karen and Thomas had almost pushed past the skirmish, taking advantage of the confusion. The flabby form of the red king tried to stab Maggie and instead, he lost his arms.

His scream rallied all the monsters toward us. He hissed at the column of brilliant daylight cast down on my daughter, from her Mother standing over her with the sword of faith blazing in her grip. "You false god, pretender, sinner. Be smote with god's wrath and healed of your sins." She proclaimed in Latin.

With that, the red king swatted a stump at Karen as she descended on him like a Spartan Amazon from planet badass, and then happened to take out a lord of outer night in the process. There were just three lords left. Thomas moved quickly to take Maggie from the altar and turned to nod at me. I launched after the demi gods, and managed to take out one then the knights of the cross warned me the Vampires were storming the pyramid more determinedly than before. There was no escape for us now. We would all die. No they would all die. I handed Karen the ceremonial dagger then took my face scarf away from my fangs. I would need them. I blurred after one lord of outer night and sank my teeth in, clawing at his stomach and throat while I drank. I took him to the ground and didn't stop till none was left.

The blood in my belly burned, I wanted to vomit and pass out but instead my flesh peeled away until I was a black flabby thing. With my human flesh, my human fear, pain, and doubt was shed until I was an animal of lust, hunger, and instinct. I looked to Thomas holding my baby. I never got to touch her, kiss her, or read to her. I looked at Karen, blue eyes blazing behind tears. I forced myself onto the altar, Michael, Sanya, Tilly, Molly and Mouse watched sadly then closed their eyes in prayer as I made Karen kill me. She kissed my blood stained lips and cut my throat. It didn't hurt at all. I felt incredible heat pour out of me, over my neck. I felt cold consume me from my toes to the hot blood pouring out my throat. I watched as the vamps all began to fall, youngest to oldest until every vampire there was gone by the way of Tommy Tom and Jenifer Stanton. Karen was pulled, crying, clinging to me, until she was off of me and tucked in Michael's arms like a child. Thomas held his niece to his chest as if she would fly away elsewise. I mildly noticed his tears on her bald little head. Things began to fade, and a cold dark sensation came over me. Then I felt nothing. Nothing at all.


End file.
